Guides

Do you want to know what goes on inside a computer? Whether you’re a shopper, a student, or a professional, you’re in the right place!

These helpful guides are clearly organised and written, and well supported by illustrations and diagrams. All in all, the PCTechGuide provides possibly the most accessible technical overview of PC hardware components and peripherals on the web

Computer and peripheral manufacturers go to great efforts to protect the home computer user from this huge and complex field of computing but it has revolutionized work allowing millions to work from home. Still, how does the photo from the laptop in the kitchen get to the desktop printer in the office, let alone to Granny’s computer on the other side of the world?

A real 21st Century breakthrough is the capability to compute on the move. The availability of broadband Internet on mobile phones, laptops and hand helds with increasing power, speed and reliability has opened radical possibilities for both business and family life.

The PC is a system composed of well-defined components. Each of the components are theoretically changeable, and though this is not entirely true in practice the modular nature of the computer is nonetheless its strength – and weakness. These guides cover the major computer components that are motherboards, interfaces and memory.

Increasing PC storage demands have strained the limits of innovation. Simple software installations noticeably eat into more hardware with each iteration, but this is nothing next to the exponential data bloating of home digital photography and video. Yet solutions have proved timely and, often, extraordinary.

Fundamental to home computing is how to get data in and out in a user-friendly way. The familiar home PC I/O (input/output) set-up includes a monitor, keyboard, mouse and printer, but there is a wide and growing range of I/O devices.

Since the introduction of sound and quality graphics capability to home computers, music, photography, and even home video – all have been revolutionized. Perhaps it is hyperbole to say that this has had a profound impact on global society… but then again, is it? A question for later. Here you’ll find out about the humble technology that makes it all happen.

This whole guide section is given over to the most integral and influential PC component of all, the CPU (Central Processing Unit). The strides in processor evolution have been at the heart of almost all human achievement since the mid 20th Century. But what is it, and how does it work?